Public defender bill signed by governor

LANSING — Earlier this week Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill sponsor Sen. Bruce Caswell believes will positively overhaul the public defender services in the state of Michigan in the next two years.

The state is one of only seven in the nation without a state-financed defender system and according to legislative analysis, "addresses many of the weaknesses plaguing the current system, which some consider one of the worst in the nation."

The law creates immediately a 16-member Michigan Indigent Defense Commission (MIDC) with one non-voting member as an autonomous entity within the judicial branch of state government to set up procedures to name defenders and set minimum standards for performance.

Currently, local judges appoint defenders, most under contract with local counties, on an hourly or flat-fee basis. Branch County employes three attorneys — Eric Goodwin, Bill Renner and J.R. Colbeck — on contracts to cover all indigent defense in both circuit and district courts in the county.

Expected to cause the most concern are required new rules for defense counsel to spend sufficient time to deal with cases and control workload for effective representation.

The law states, "economic disincentives or incentives that impair the ability to provide effective representation must be avoided."

This is expected to prohibit flat-fee contracts.

Counties are protected from spending more than they have averaged in the last three years for public defender services. The state is supposed to pick up additional costs, but counties that don’t meet minimum standards would be forced to pay penalties — up to 30 percent.

The bill, which passed 32-6 in the senate and 102-7 in the house, came after concerns were expressed by the U.S. Justice Department that Michigan was not providing adequate indigent defense required by federal court decisions.

Legislative staff analysis noted, "The state is already incurring expenses due to inappropriate sentences and longer incarcerations related to ineffective appointed counsel at the trial level and appointed appellate counsel when such sentences are appealed.

"Others believe the state has a moral and ethical obligation, in addition to the legal obligation to uphold state and federal Constitutional requirements, to guarantee the right to effective representation to all," the report continued.

Another major concern comes from more populous counties where judges were accused of appointing counsel to defense contracts based on political contributions to the judges’ campaigns.

None of the major issues cited by the Justice Department related to services in Branch County other than concerns about flat-fee contracts.